Seminars

Saturday 19 January
2002, Liz Greene, ZurichWhatever Happened to Baby Jane: The Moon and
Venus in the Birth Chart
The Moon and Venus are usually considered "feminine" planets which
describe different aspects of the female archetype. Yet they are
not as simple as mere denominators of mothering versus romantic
love. Each of these planets has a complex range of needs and expressions,
and they form a polarity in every birth chart, whether that of a
man or a woman, which is reflected not only in personal relationship
patterns but also in one's relationship to the body and one's capacity
for self-appreciation, contentment, and physical and emotional happiness.
Like every archetypal polarity, this pair of planets presents enormous
challenges to balance and express, even if they are not in difficult
aspect to each other in the natal chart.
This seminar will explore the innate and ultimately unresolvable
conflict between the two, the particular challenges of natal Venus-Moon
aspects, the differences and similarities of expression of these
planets in men's and women's charts, their relevance to rivalry
and love triangles, and their importance in both the experience
of the personal mother and the capacity to "mother" (in both men
and women) the children of the imagination as well as of the body.

Saturday 9 February
2002, Liz Greene, ZurichThe Art of Scuba-Diving: Understanding
the Water HousesThe 4th, 8th and 12th houses remain an
enigma to the astrological student and practitioner, despite many
intelligent articles and books explaining their meaning. This is
due in part because these houses are concerned with subtle spheres
of experience which do not easily lend themselves to rational definitions.
Also, older textbooks associate some dire things with these houses:
the 8th, for example, was once known as the "House of Death", and
the 12th as the "House of Self-Undoing".
In consequence, many astrologers avoid probing too deeply into the
implications of planets placed here. There is also often a failure
in understanding on the part of astrologers when dealing with these
houses. Sometimes they are referred to as the "unconscious" houses,
implying that any planet placed in these houses in the birth chart
is therefore "unconscious". This is a simplistic, somewhat negative,
and perhaps even erroneous definition of these mysterious spheres
of the horoscope. Yet planets placed in these houses are often connected
with some of life's most disturbing and shattering encounters with
the invisible as well as with the creative power and imagination
of the artist; and it is important to understand water house chart
placements as deeply as possible.
This seminar will explore the water houses from mythic and psychological
as well as ancient, medieval and modern astrological perspectives.
Students are welcome to bring their birth charts on transparency.

Saturday, 9th November
2002, Liz Greene, Zurich
Mother-in-Law Jokes aren't funny: The Astrology of other People's
Families
Astrological patterns among blood-related family members provide
us with one of the most revelatory and interesting areas of astrological
exploration.
But little attention is given to the ways in which astrology works
when we aren't blood-related to the people whom life appears to
"force" on us though apparent chance.
This seminar will explore the psychological dynamics of some typical
examples of non-blood-related interactions, such as adoptive parents
and children, step-mothers, step-fathers and step-children, mothers-
and fathers-in-law, and ex-wives and ex-husbands. Surprisingly,
the links between our own charts and those belonging to "other people's
families" are as close and as powerful as those with blood-related
family members, suggesting that nothing that happens to us in life
is really "by chance". But the particular psychology and mythology
which underpin such apparently fortuitous relationships give planetary
links a different and often deeply problematic expression.
The greater our understanding of how these links operate, the more
creative our interaction can be with those who have apparently entered
our lives at random, but with whom we must share our past and our
future.

Saturday,
7th December 2002,
Liz Greene, Zurich
The Pursuit of the unobtainable: Exploring the Fire Houses
The fire houses in the horoscope (1st, 5th and 9th) are usually,
unlike the water houses, given a "good press" in traditional literature,
and are associated with things like "self-expression", "creativity",
"luck", and "philosophy".
Yet these houses are not so simple, for they all carry an innate
challenge for any planet placed in them: how to accommodate personal
reality with a vision of what always lies beyond our reach, and
the necessary courage and suffering required to pursue our dreams
of the future and the potential which we will, inevitably, fail
to live completely in one short incarnation.
This seminar will explore the fire houses from mythological, psychological
and astrological perspectives, including not only natal planets
placed there, but also transits and progressions to these houses,
and the effects of synastry when someone else's horoscope configurations
trigger our fire house planets. We will also explore in depth the
enigmatic symbol of the Ascendant, the portal to the first fire
house and the key to how we define our reality and gradually build
the central solar sense of an individual identity.